I've noticed that my steering has gotten pretty sloppy since purchasing my fit almost 5 years ago. I notice it most when im on the highway...I can turn the wheel a good three to four inches in either direction before the wheels begin to respond. I purchased the car with 63k miles and it now has close to 112k miles so im curious if there is an adjustment that should be done after breaking the 100k milestone. The car has been amazingly reliable for me so I want to keep it for a few more years.

 

Have you checked if the rack is securely fastened to the car? If it is coming loose, it will lift (rotate) or dive (rotate ) as it attempts to convert your steering wheel inputs into left / right of your wheels.

Check that first.

Have someone rotate the steering wheel while the tires on the ground and engine is running. You should position yourself so you can see if there is any abnormal movement of the rack with each lock-to-lock turn of the wheel. That main housing shouldn't move because it's bolted to the car.

By the way, how does the car behave going down a straight road? Does it wander back / forth at all? If rack is loose, it would wander.

 

Thanks for the response. No it doesn't wander. I recently purchased 4 new tires and had a 4 wheel alignment even though it was only slightly misaligned.

 

Significantly over inflated tires will make the steering extremely easy - too easy but that isn't your stated problem.

The service manual says that with the wheels straight ahead (on a solid surface / engine running) the steering wheel should move no more than 10mm left or right before the wheels start to turn left or right.

If it is more than that then you're supposed to go through a "Rack Guide Adjustment". It appears you need a special tool to loosen the Rack Guide Screw Locknut but it looks like a "big" closed end wrench (40 mm). Go for it if you already have a wrench like that. Then you remove the Rack Guide Screw. Clean it up by removing the old threadlocker and put new threadlocker on.

Reinstall and torque to 18 lbf-ft, then loosen, then re-torque to 2.9 lbf-ft. While sitting there, you back off (unthread) the screw 13 degrees and then re-torque the locknut to spec (??? not stated). OR.........

Get the car up on a lift and check all of the tie rod ends, ball joints, etc for excessive play and fix those issues before digging into the power steering gearbox. I would look at all of that stuff first (cheap / simple) and if that isn't a problem now or after replacing the worn parts, then dig into making the Rack Guide Adjustment.

 

Thanks! I'll do that.